Welt-beating machine



A. F. LITTLEFIELD. WELT BEATING MACHINE. APPLlCATlON FILED NOV. 15, um.

Patented Oct. 26,1920.

2 SHEEIS-SHEEI A. F. LITTLEFIELD.

WELT BEATlNG-MACHINE.

APPLICATION FILED NOV. I5. 1919.

Patented Oct. 26, 1920.

2 SHEE1S-SHEET 2.

mtness UNITED STATES PATENT; OFFICE.

AUGUSTINE FRANK LITTLEFIELD, OF LYNN, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR.TO UNITED SHOE MACHINERY CORPORATION, OF PATERSON, NEW JERSEY, A CORPORATION OF NEW JERSEY.

VIELT-BEA'IFING MACHINE.

Specification of Letters Patent. Patented Oct. 26, 1920.

Application filed November 15, 1919. Serial No. 338,181.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, AUGUSTINE F. LITTLE- FIELD, a citizen of the United States, residing at Lynn, in the county of Essex and State of Massachusetts, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Welt- Beating Machines; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

In the manufacture of welted shoes, the welt, after being sewed to the upper and the insole, is subjected to a beating-out operation to cause it to lie in substantially the general plane of the insole. Before the beating, the outer and the inner edges of the welt are 'of substantially the same length, and in order to cause the attached welt to lie in the plane of the insole, the outer edge must be stretched considerably. To accomplish this result, it is often neces sary to subject certain portions of the welt, and especially the portion at the toe of the shoe, not only to the beating'out operation, but to a slashing operation as well. This latter operation comprises slitting the welt to weaken its margin, the slits extending partly through the welt in an oblique direction from the flesh or under side toward the grain or upper side.

Welt beating and slashing ,machines as now usually constructed comprise a work support, a welt beating hammer and, a slashing knife constructed and arranged to slash the welt while it is clamped between the work support and the hammer. As a result of this construction and mode of operation, the welt beating hammer, or at least a considerable proportion of it, acts upon a part of the welt which is stillunslashed and consequently places considerable strain upon the inseam in bending the welt out into the plane of the insole. Also considerable difiiculty is often encountered in causing the welt to be beaten out flat even when a comparatively large number of slashes are made in the welt.

The objects of the present invention are to reduce the strain upon the inseam, which has heretofore been caused by bending the unslashed welt up into the plane of the insole, and also to render the welt more flexible prior to the beating out operation so as quicklyand easily beaten out than has heretofore been possible.

With the above objects in view, the present invention contemplates the provision in a welt beating machine of means for slashing the welt before it is acted upon by the beating out mechanism. By providing a welt slashing device which slashes the welt before it is beaten out th'e welt can be readily lifted throughout its length into the plane of the insole without exerting any objectionable strain on the inseam, and can be beaten out flat so as to remain permanently'in the plane of the insole in a very short space of time.

In the preferred form of the present in- I vention the parts which support and act upon the welt are so arranged that the welt is slashed before it is lifted into the plane of the insole. To this end the welt support comprises a flat surface which cooperates with a welt beating hammer to beat out the welt and a relatively inclined surface leading to the flat surface which cooperates with a welt slashing knife to slash the welt as it is moved by the operator over the support in the direction from the inclined surface to the fiat surface. As the welt is moved over the welt support it islifted to a slight degree only by the inclined surface before being slashed, but after being slashed is raised by the inclined surface into the plane of the insole where it rests on the fiat surface and is subjected to'the action of'the welt beating hammer.

In addition to the features of the invention above referred to, the present invention also consists in the constructions, combinations and arrangements of parts hereinafter described and claimed, the advantages of which will be obvious to those skilled in the art.

The invention will be readily understood from the accompanying drawings, illustrating the invention in its preferred form, in

which Figure 1 is a side elevation, partly in section, of a welt=beating and slashing ma-. chine embodying the invention; Fig. 2'is a view in front elevation of a portion of the machine, illustrating particularly the beater or hammer and the slashing knife mechanism; Fig. 3 is a detail sectional view, taken substantially on the line 33- of Fig. 4; Fig. 4 is a plan view of a portion of the machine, illustrating particularly the mechanism for operating the slashing knife; Fig. 5 is a detail view illustrating the welt support and the hammer in section, and the slashing knife engaging the welt; and Fig. 6 is an underside plan view of the beating hammer.

The general organization of the machine illustrated in the drawings and the construction and arrangement of the'parts of the welt-beating mechanism are substantially the same as in the machine illustrated and described in the patent to Hadaway, No. 875,171, dated December 31, 1907. The ma chine comprises a welt support 2 shaped at its forward end to enter between the upper and the welt of a lasted shoe and a vibratory beater or hammer 4 arranged to engage and beat out the welt as itis fed from right to left (Fig. 2) across the upper surface of the welt support. The welt support 2 is adjustably secured to a forwardly projecting arm 6 on the frame of the machine. The hammer 4 is secured to the lower end of a hammer rod or plunger 8 that is slidably mounted in guides in the forward end of a hammer lever 10. The rod 8 is acted upon by a coiled spring 11 surrounding the rod within a chamber in the hammer lever which holds the rod yieldingly in its lower limiting position in the hammer lever and allows the hammer to yield when it engages the welt. The hammer lever is fixed to a shaft 12 mounted in suitable bearings in the frame of the machine. The hammer lever is rapidly oscillated to vibrate the hammer by means of an eccentric or crank 14 formed on the main shaft of the machine and operating within a. two-part bearing block 18 mounted in guides in the bifurcated rear end of the hammer lever. The main shaft is mounted in suitable bearings in the frame of the machine and carries a driving pulley (not shown). The construction thus far described is substantially the same as that of the machine illustrated and described in the Hadaway patentreferred to above.

In the embodiment of the invention illustrated in the drawings, the welt-slashing knife 22 is mounted at an angle to the sup port 2upon the outer end of an. arm 23 so as to act upon the welt at a position to the rear of the hammer 4 having regard to the right-to-leftdirection of feed. The arm 23 is adjustably clamped upon a rocking shaft 26 that is mounted within bearings upon a stationary support 28. A lever 29 is rigidly secured to the shaft 26 intermediate its ends, and is provided at one end with a roller 3O. A spring 31 is secured to the other end of the lever 29 and to a stationary portion of the machine. The spring 31 normally maintains the rocking shaft.26,

and consequently also the slashing knife 22, in an inoperative position, as illustrated more particularly in Fig. 2.

The roller 30 is adapted to be engaged by a cam disk 32 that is loosely mounted upon a stud 34 projecting rearwardly from the frame of the machine. The cam disk 32 is adapted to be rotated from a worm wheel 35 which is loosely mounted upon the stud 34 and. which is driven from a worm 42 mounted upon the main shaft of the machine. The worm wheel 35 is provided with a segmental slot in the lateral face adja cent to the cam disk 32 which is adapted to receive a clutch bolt 36. The bolt 36 is slidingly mounted in a hole in the cam disk 32, but cannot rotate with respect to the cam disk. A spring 37 secured,'at one end, to the bolt 36, and, at the other end, to the cam disk 32, normally tends to move the bolt 36 to the left, as shown in Fig. 1. The lefthand end of the bolt, when it is moved to its lefthand position, (Fig. 2) is adapted to enter the segmental slot in the face of the worm wheel 35 and to engage the end of said slot, and thereby to be actuated by the said worm wheel to drive the cam.

Means are provided for withdrawing the clutch bolt- 36 from engagement with the worm wheel 35, comprising a lever 40 pivoted upon a portion of the frame of the machine and normally held in its uppermost position by a spring 39, and capable of be ing depressed by a chain 41 connected with a foot treadle (not shown). The free end of the lever 40 carries a wedge 38 which is tapered at one end and is extended in the are of a circle around the center of the stud 34, so that when permitted to rise to the position shown in the drawings, it operates to engage the head of the clutch bolt 36 and withdraw it from engagement with the worm wheel 35. After the clutch bolt 36 is withdrawn by the wedge 38', the head of the clutch bolt rides along the surface of the rest and the clutch bolt ismaintained in its retracted position, in substantially the same manner as that illustrated and described in the Hadaway patent referred to above.

Thesupport is illustrated as comprising a horizontal anvil surface 45, cotiperating with the vertically reciprocable beater or hammer 4, and relatively inclined or round ed surface 47 situated to the rear of the fiat surface and leading thereto, upon which the welt rests during the slashing operation. The shoe is moved forwardly, upside down, by the operator from right to left, the front end of the support contacting with thebottom of the crease between the upper and the welt to serve as a guide. Successive portionsof the welt are thus presented first to the action of the knife, when the knife is in operation,.and then. to the hammer. The

end of the arm 23 to slidably receive the knife 22' within the guide slot 51. The presser foot is normally spring-pressed to a position such that the active portion of the knife is contained wholly within the guide slot 51.

In operation, during the right-to-left feeding movement of the welt over the support 2, if the portion of the welt which rests upon the surface 47 is to be slashed the operator will actuate the treadle (not shown). In practice, the treadle will usually be actuated only when the toe portion of the shoe rests upon the inclined surface 47 The depres sion of the treadle results in the depression of the wedge 38 through the action of the chain 41, the bolt 36 thereupon being moved by the spring 37 to the left (Fig. 1), eifecting a connection between the worm wheel and the cam disk 32. The cam then acts upon the roller 30 to effect a rocking movement of the shaft 26. If the treadle is released soonafter it is depressed, the cam will effect a single complete rotation with the worm wheel, after which the wedge 38 will operate to withdraw the bolt 36 to the right, disconnecting the cam from theworm wheel. If the treadle is maintained depressed, the cam will effect any desired number of complete rotations. The knife 22 may thus be operated at the will of the operator to effect a single slashing cut or any desired number of such cuts. Prior to the slashing operation, the presser foot engages the welt, clamping it to the surface 47, the knife 22 then sliding in the guide slot 51 to penetrate the engaged welt. Following the slashing operation, the rightto-left feedin move- Inenteffects a lifting of the welt from the surface 47 into the plane of the surface where it is beaten out.

Having thus explained the nature and object of the invention and having specifically described a machine embodying the various features thereof in their preferred form, what is claimed is:

1. A welt-beating machine having, in combination, weltbeating mechanism for beating out the welt of a shoe, and means for slashing the welt before it is beaten.

2. A welt-beating machine having, in combination, means for slashing a portion of the welt while it is out of the general plane of the insole and means forthereafter beating the slashed portion of the welt.

3. A welt-beating machine having, in combination, a welt support, a welt beater, and a welt-slashing device arranged to the rear of the heater in the direction of feed of the welt over the support to slash the welt before it is beaten.

4. A welt-beating machine having, in combination, a welt beater, a welt support for supporting the welt against the action of the beater, and means for slashing the welt before it is lifted into the general plane of said support.

5. A welt-beating machine having, in combination, a welt beater, a welt support hav ing a flat surface for supporting the welt against the action of the beater and a relatively inclined surface leading thereto, and means for slashing the welt while it is engaged with the inclined surface of the supoort.

1 6. A welt-beating machine having, in combination, a welt support provided with two surfaces, means for clamping the welt to one of the surfaces, means for slashing the clamped welt, and a welt beater for beating out the welt upon the other surface.

AUGUSTINE FRANK LITTLEFIELD. 

